1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electronic ballast circuitry for fluorescent lamps.
2. Description of the Related Art
A fluorescent lamp is a “green” (i.e., energy-saving and/or high-efficiency) light source, and advantageously has a color-temperature which is capable of being controlled. Fluorescent lamps have been widely used in various fields and become a preferred choice of man-made light sources in daily life. When such a high efficiency and high quality light source is widely used, not only is its energy and efficiency (for example, the development towards minimization, integration, digitalization, energy saving, and high efficiency), but also its operational life, is given much attention.
In the prior art, in order to increase the life of a fluorescent lamp tube, besides improving the quality of the lamp tube itself, two steps are generally performed, i.e., its filament is sufficiently preheated and the voltage between both ends of the lamp tube is reduced during its preheating.
In step 1, the filament of the lamp tube is sufficiently preheated immediately before lighting, and this facilitates the emitting of the electrons of the filament and the ionization breaking-down in the lamp tube so as to realize the glow starting function. However, the facts have proved that the preheating by excessive filament current causes the premature degradation of the filament and therefore reduces the life of the lamp tube, and a reasonable filament preheating current is necessary. In step 2, since a pulse voltage of typically 300 V or higher is applied to both ends of a lamp tube by common ballast during fluorescent lamp tube preheating, this easily tends to cause the so-called “glowing” phenomena. If the voltage applied to both ends of a lamp tube can be reduced during that period and the voltage at the moment of starting a lamp tube can be increased to ensure starting, the production of glow discharge can be prevented completely, i.e., the electrons emitted by a filament are prevented from sputtering under a high voltage and the lamp tube would not blackened over early, thereby lengthening the life of the lamp tube greatly.
The practice of the present invention is based on the fundamental considerations and constructions described above.
In order to increase the operation life of a fluorescent lamp tube, three processes have been researched, i.e., preheating, starting, and operating normally of lighting fluorescent lamp tube, and great attention is given to the filament preheating and the voltage applied to both ends of a lamp tube during its starting, therefore various methods and circuits based on concepts described above are proposed to slow the aging of the lamp tube.
In the prior art, a thermistor with positive temperature coefficient (PTC) is employed. A maximum filament preheating current is obtained by use of the thermistor connected between both ends of a lamp tube at the moment of tuning on a power supply, and with time elapsing, gradually becomes low due to the increasing resistance value with the rising temperature of the thermistor PTC, and at that time, the function of resonance capacitance in the circuit becomes obvious gradually, i.e., a Q value in the resonance circuit becomes greater gradually. When the voltage between both ends of the lamp tube is increased to a starting voltage, the lamp tube is lit. This is a simple and effective method, which has generally been employed in cheap electronic ballasts.
Furthermore, in electronic ballasts with high performance, an integrated circuit (“IC”) is used as a driving control circuit. The IC has other functions, such as preheating time control, oscillation frequency setting, protection detecting, restarting function, and the like. This method can also reduce the voltage between both ends of a lamp tube during preheating.
By summarizing the present art conditions introduced above, the inventors have recognized the following facts: although the method is simple using a thermistor with positive temperature coefficient, due to influence of its performance, there are poor consistency and low reliability and a glow discharging phenomena is easily caused when the circuit is not properly adjusted. In addition, due to a heat effect of the thermistor, more than 1 W of power is consumed by electronic ballasts. By employing an IC as a driving control circuit, though there are realized powerful functions, simple adjustments, conveniently presetting preheat time, and other functions, it is difficult for a voltage output to a lamp tube to be reduced to an ideal condition due to a limited adjusting frequency (about two times), and especially for a lamp tube operated under a low tube voltage, the glow discharging phenomena occurs very easily. Furthermore, the cost of an IC and the complexity of its peripheral circuits also prevents it from being widely used. Therefore, the foregoing two methods cannot completely solve the problems of preheat starting and excessive tube voltage in starting. In the foregoing two methods, 2-4 W are consumed on every lamp tube after electronic ballasts operates normally, such that the efficiency of the whole device is reduced, the premature degradation of the filament is accelerated, and the life of the lamp tube is reduced.
An object of the present invention is to overcome the foregoing drawbacks presented in the prior art.
An electronic ballast manufactured based on the disclosed CUT & SAVE technology can nearly perfectly realize the functions of both solving filament preheating and reducing tube voltage during preheating, and a preheating voltage applied to a filament can be removed after the lamp tube is started and operates normally.
The disclosed CUT & SAVE technology achieves energy saving by performing corresponding processing in different stages of operation with the use of new concepts and technologies, and on the basis of energy saving, the whole operational performance of electronic ballasts are improved so as to prevent the glow discharging phenomena from occurring and to greatly increase safety thereof.